Atlas Shrugged
The novel's plot is split into three sections. The first two sections, and to some extent the last, follow Dagny Taggart, a no-nonsense railroad executive, and her attempt to keep the company alive despite repeated encroachment by a society falling toward collectivism/altruism/statism. All throughout the novel people repeat a platitude Dagny greatly resents: "Who is John Galt?" It is a reflection of their helplessness, as the saying means "Don't ask important questions, because they don't have answers."
The geniuses of the world seem to be disappearing, and the apparent decline of civilization is making it more and more difficult for her to sustain her life-long aspirations of running the trans-continental railroad, which has been in her family for several generations. She deals with other characters such as Hank Rearden, a self-made businessman of great integrity whose career is hindered by his false feelings of obligation towards his wife. Francisco d'Anconia, Dagny's childhood friend, first love, and king of the copper industry, appears to have become a worthless playboy who is purposely destroying his business.
As the novel progresses: the myths about the real John Galt, as well as Francisco d'Anconia's actions, increasingly become a reflection of the state of the culture, and seem to make more and more sense; and, Hank and Dagny begin to experience the futility of their attempts to survive in a society that hates them and those like them for their greatness.
During their plight, Dagny and Hank find the remnants of a motor that turns atmospheric static electricity into kinetic energy, an astounding feat; they also find evidence that the minds (the "Atlases") of the world are disappearing because of one particular "destroyer" taking them away. Dagny and Hank deal with the irrationalities and apparent contradictions of their atmosphere, and search for the creator of the motor as well as "the destroyer" who is draining the world of its prime movers, in an effort to secure their ability to live rational lives.
The question "Who is John Galt?" is also answered towards the closing of the novel - John Galt is a man disgusted that non-productive members of society use laws and guilt to leech from the value created by productive members of society. He made a pledge that he will never live his life for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for him, and founded an enclave, separate from the rest of the country, where he and other productive members of society have fled.
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Characters**
Minor CharactersSanction of the Victim
The Sanction of the Victim is defined as "the willingness of the good to suffer at the hands of the
evil, to accept the role of sacrificial victim for the '
sin' of creating values."
The entire story of Atlas Shrugged can be seen as an answer to the question, what would happen if this sanction was revoked? When Atlas shrugs, relieving himself of the burden of carrying the world, he is revoking his sanction.
The concept is supposedly original in the thinking of
Ayn Rand and is foundational to her moral theory. She holds that evil is a parasite on the good and can only exist if the good tolerates it. To quote from
Galt's Speech: "Evil is impotent and has no power but that which we let it extort from us", and, "I saw that evil was impotent...and the only weapon of its triumph was the willingness of the good to serve it." Morality requires that we do not sanction our own victimhood, Rand claims. In adhering to this concept, Rand assigns virtue to the trait of
selfishness.
Throughout Atlas Shrugged, numerous characters admit that there is something wrong with the world but they cannot put their finger on what it is. The concept they cannot grasp is the sanction of the victim. The first person to grasp the concept is
John Galt, who vows to stop the motor of the world by getting the creators of the world to withhold their sanction.
We first glimpse the concept in
section 121 when
Hank Rearden feels he is duty-bound to support his family, despite their hostility towards him.
In
section 146 the principle is stated explicitly by
Dan Conway: "I suppose somebody's got to be sacrificed. If it turned out to be me, I have no right to complain."
Social classes
Rand is sometimes called an elitist. This claim is probably accurate if we allow for the fact that Rand had her own standard of eliteness – throughout
Atlas Shrugged, productive and creative ability is equated with virtue.
Different social classes are represented among both the heroes and the villains of
Atlas Shrugged. Among the heroes, John Galt and Hank Rearden are from working class backgrounds, while Dagny Taggart and Francisco d'Anconia are from wealthy families. Among the villains, Fred Kinnan is from a working class background, while James Taggart and Betty Pope are from wealthy families.
Theory of Sex
In rejecting the traditional
Christian altruistic
moral code, Rand also rejects the sexual code that, in her view, is a
logical implication of
altruism.
Rand introduces a theory of sex in
Atlas Shrugged which is purportedly implied by her broader ethical and psychological theories. Far from being a debasing animal instinct, sex is the highest celebration of our greatest values. Sex is a physical response to intellectual and spiritual values – a mechanism for giving concrete expression to values that could otherwise only be experienced in the abstract.
One is sexually attracted to those who embody one's values. Those who have base values will be attracted to baseness, to those who also have ignoble values. Those who lack any clear purpose will find sex devoid of meaning. People of high values will respond sexually to those who embody high values.
Though radical for the time Atlas Shrugged was published, the general idea of sexual desire as a response to the embodiment of our values originally appeared in Socrates's Speech in
Plato's Symposium.
This sexual theory is illustrated in the contrasting relationships of
Hank Rearden with
Lillian Rearden and
Dagny Taggart, and later with Dagny Taggart and
John Galt.
Other important illustrations of this theory are found in:
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Section 152 – recounts Dagny's relationship with
Francisco d'Anconia.
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Section 161 – recounts Hank and Lillian Rearden's courtship, and Lillian's attitude towards sex.
The companies in
Atlas Shrugged are generally divided into two groups: these that are operated by sympathetic characters are given the name of the owner, while companies operated by evil or incompetent characters are given generic names. Those who use their own names to name their companies become
Strikers, with the minor exception of Mr. Ayers of the Ayers Music Publishing Company.
Hank Rearden's companies are all named after him; Wyatt Oil after Ellis Wyatt; and Taggart Transcontinental and d'Anconia Copper are named after their founders (and, being family-held, their present owners). Hammond Motors and Ayers Music Publishing are also presented as competent.
Orren Boyle named his government-dependent, influence-peddling company Associated Steel. The Phoenix-Durango railroad had also been insignificant, until it prospered accidentally, because of Ellis Wyatt's energy. A number of minor, but generically named, companies break contracts with Taggart Transcontinental, or otherwise let it down.
Because the book centers on industrial capitalism, Ayn Rand mentions many technologies throughout the book. In addition to normal technologies, she introduces several fictional inventions, including refractor rays (Gulch mirage), Rearden Metal, a sonic
death ray ("Project X"), voice activated door locks (Gulch power station), motors powered by
static electricity, palm-activated door locks (Galt's NY lab), shale-oil drilling, and a
nerve-induction
torture machine.
She also refers, however, to the "screech" of a traffic-signal, implying that it signals by moving flags on mechanical arms, which was already old-fashioned when the book was written.
Project X
Project X is an invention of the scientists at the state science institute, requiring tons of Rearden Metal. It is a sonic weapon, capable of destroying everything in a 100-mile radius. The scientists claim that the project will be used to preserve peace and squash rebellion. It is destroyed towards the end of the book, and emits a sonic pulse that destroys everything in the surrounding area, including Cuffy Meigs and Dr. Stadler, as well as the Taggart Bridge.
Rearden Metal
Rearden metal is a
fictitious metal alloy invented by
Hank Rearden. It is lighter than traditional
steel but stronger, and is to steel what steel was to
iron. It is described as greenish-blue. Among its ingredients are iron and
copper.
Initially no one is willing to use Rearden metal because no one wants to stick his neck out and be the first to try it. Finally,
Dagny Taggart places an order for Rearden Metal when she needs rails to rebuild the dying Rio Norte Line.
Galt's Motor
John Galt invented a new type of electrical apparatus described in the book as a
motor. This motor generates energy from static electricity; since it is designed to
provide its own power as long as it is activated, it is a type of
perpetual motion machine.
Dagny discovers a discarded prototype of the motor and it is superficially described in
section Part 1, Chapter 9. Galt shows Dagny the motor and describes it in Part 3, Chapter 1.
Atlas Shrugged was reviewed shortly after its publication in 1957 in
Christian Science Monitor,
New York Herald Tribune,
Commonweal,
New York Times,
Catholic World,
The New Yorker,
American Mercury,
Atlantic Monthly,
Saturday Review,
Human Events,
Newsweek,
Time and
National Review. The initial reviews were largely negative, criticizing both the book's literary qualities and its political vision.
[See http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/books/rand/atlas/, retrieved August 9, 2006, for a list of reviews and bibliographical information.] Arguably, the bulk of critical discussion has focused on the latter. As Thomas Reed Whissen has said, "Rand's critics say that she cannot write, but one senses in such an indictment more of a political than a literary posture; for surely the enduring success of
The Fountainhead cannot be attributed to her philosophy alone. Her style may be somewhat overwrought and her characters cardboard, but she is a genius at plotting, and she knows how to tell a story."
[Thomas Reed Whissen, Classic Cult Fiction: A Companion to Popular Cult Literature, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1992.]The conservative magazine
National Review commissioned a highly critical review (by
Whittaker Chambers) arguing against the novel's implicit endorsement of
atheism whereby "Randian man, like
Marxian man is made the center of a godless world."
[Chambers, Whittaker. "Big Sister Is Watching You." National Review. January 5, 2005.] In response, the Objectivist magazine
The Intellectual Activist argued that Chambers did not actually read the novel.
[Tracinski, Robert W. "A Half-Century-Old Attack on Ayn Rand Reminds Us of the Dark Side of Conservatism". Capitalism Magazine. January 6, 2005.] Another conservative, philosopher
Russell Kirk, "groused that people read her novels 'for the fornicating bits.'"
[McLemee, Scott. "The Heirs of Ayn Rand: Has Objectivism Gone Subjective?" Retrieved May 26, 2006.]Writer and former Objectivist
George Saunders claims that the mentality of
Atlas Shrugged is very similar to
neoconservativism. He says the book tells people they are special without giving any proof of it, and equates weakness with evil. He also claims that "Ayn Rand writes bad prose".
[Bemis, Alec Hanley. "Mean Snacks and Monkey Shit: Talking bananas with George Saunders". LA Weekly. May 10, 2006.]Political critic
Arianna Huffington asserts that Rand's vision of businessmen in
Atlas Shrugged differs from how they act in reality. Rand's businessman is one "who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved" and "does not ask to be paid for his failures, nor does he ask to be loved for his flaws", which, according to Huffington, contradicts with how modern CEOs act, especially in the case of the
Enron scandal.
[Huffington, Arianna. "The Enron bonus plan". Salon.com. April 20, 2002.] However, Rand does not imply, in
Atlas Shrugged or elsewhere, that most businessmen live up to this ideal in practice; the Mr. Mowen character is an example of this.
Columnist
Kevin Drum, writing in
The Washington Monthly claimed that, although he's never read it,
Atlas Shrugged is one of the ten most harmful books of the 19th and 20th century, calling it "absurd – and interminable" and claiming that it "appeals mostly to impressionable teenagers who quickly grow out of it."
[Drum, Kevin. "Books We ]Hate Beg To Differ With....". The Washington Monthly. June 6, 2005 Ian Williams, writing for
Salon.com, claims that
"Atlas Shrugged reads like a novelization of
Mein Kampf by
Barbara Cartland".
[Williams, Ian. "The talented Mr. Greenspan". Salon.com. January 10, 2000.]Former Ayn Rand associate
Nathaniel Branden argues that
Atlas Shrugged "encourages emotional repression and self-disowning" and that it, along with Rand's other major Objectivist novel,
The Fountainhead, contains contradictory messages. Though he notes that the book shows that Rand understood the human need for social interaction, Branden claims that "rarely you find the heroes and heroine talking to each other on a simple, human level without launching into philosophical sermons," which he believes is used to increase the reader's self-alienation. He further questions the psychological impact of the novel stating that John Galt's claim that contempt and moral condemnation are appropriate responses to wrongdoing clashes with the recommendations of psychologists, who say that this kind of behavior only causes the wrongdoing to repeat itself.
[Branden, Nathaniel. "The Benefits and Hazards of the Philosophy of Ayn Rand: A Personal Statement". 1984.]On the other hand, Howard Dickman of
Reader's Digest wrote that the novel had "turned millions of readers on to the ideas of liberty" and said that the book had the important message of the readers' "profound right to be happy." The libertarian
Cato Institute held a conference to celeberate the fortieth anniversary of the publication of
Atlas Shrugged.
["Cato Events: Hundreds Gather to Celebrate Atlas Shrugged". Cato Policy Report. November/December 1997.] Conservative
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas cites
Atlas Shrugged as among his favorite novels,
[Bidinotto, Robert James. "Celebrity 'Rand Fans' – Clarence Thomas". Retrieved May 26, 2006.] as does neolibertarian
Larry Elder.[
1]
Chip Mellor of the libertarian
Institute for Justice writes that "Whether they have adopted her philosophy wholeheartedly or found her writings of more transitory interest, countless individuals working to secure liberty have found inspiration in the works of Ayn Rand. With her unique ability to depict heroism, idealism, and romance behind the creativity of the individual, Rand inspires readers to come to the defense of free minds and free markets. [
2]"
In a three-month online poll
[Subject of article: Headlam, Bruce. "Forget Joyce; Bring on Ayn Rand." The New York Times July 30, 1998, G4 (Late Edition, East Coast).][Subject of article: Yardley, Jonathan. "The Voice of the People Speaks. Too Bad It Doesn't Have Much to Say." The Washington Post August 10, 1998, D2 (Final Edition). Retrieved from ProQuest Historical Newspapers.] of reader selections of the hundred best books of the twentieth century, administered by publisher
Modern Library,
Atlas Shrugged was voted number one, ahead of
The Fountainhead,
Battlefield Earth, and
The Lord of the Rings, while the list chosen by the Modern Library panel of authors and scholars contains no works by Rand.
["100 Best Novels". RandomHouse.com. Retrieved June 20, 2006.] Because
Battlefield Earth and two other books by
science fiction writer and
Scientology founder
L. Ron Hubbard were in the top ten, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Ray Jenkins compares Rand's popularity to that of Hubbard, calling her "a goddess of a great American cult."
[Jenkins, Ray. "Ayn Rand after a century: Who was she – and why?" Baltimore Sun February 16, 2003. Retrieved from http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/general531.html.] He goes on to state that her works were "ignored or deplored by the critics of the day" and that even the most dedicated fans find Galt's sixty-page speech to be "heavy slogging."
In the
South Park episode
Chicken Lover,
Officer Barbrady reads Atlas Shrugged after overcoming his illiteracy. He later states to the town that after reading this book, he never plans to read again.
Literary critic
Harold Bloom found
Atlas Shrugged and Rand's other fiction to have enough significance to include her in a critical anthology he edited,
American Women Fiction Writers, 1900-1960, Vol. Three, (Chelsea House, 1998).
Rights to the novel
Atlas Shrugged were purchased by the Baldwin Entertainment Group in
2003.
Lions Gate has picked up worldwide distribution rights, and
James V. Hart is writing the
screenplay;
Brad Pitt and
Angelina Jolie (both fans of Rand's works) are rumored to be cast as John Galt and Dagny Taggart.
[McClintock, Pamela. "Lionsgate shrugging: 'Atlas' pic mapped". Variety. April 26, 2006.]Two works of Rand's –
The Fountainhead and
We the Living – have been adapted into movies so far.
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We the Living*
Anthem (novella)*
The Fountainhead*
Ayn Rand*
Objectivism (Ayn Rand)*
Laissez-faire capitalism*
DystopiaPublications
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Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand; Signet; (September 1996) ISBN 0451191145
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Atlas Shrugged (Cliffs Notes), Andrew Bernstein;
Cliffs Notes; (June 5, 2000) ISBN 0764585568
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The World of Atlas Shrugged, Robert Bidinotto/The Objectivist Center; HighBridge Company; (April 19, 2001) ISBN 156511471X
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Atlas Shrugged: Manifesto of the Mind (Twayne's Masterwork Studies, No. 174) Mimi Reisel Gladstein; Twayne Pub; (June 2000) ISBN 0805716386
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The Moral Revolution in Atlas Shrugged,
Nathaniel Branden; The Objectivist Center; (July 1999) ISBN 1577240332
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Odysseus, Jesus, and Dagny, Susan McCloskey; The Objectivist Center; (August 1, 1998) ISBN 1577240251
Foreign translations
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German:
Wer ist John Galt? (Hamburg, Germany: GEWIS Verlag), ISBN 3-932-56403-0.
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Italian:
La rivolta di Atlante, 2 vol. (Milano, Garzanti, 1958), Out of print. Translator: Laura Grimaldi
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Japanese:
肩'すくめるアトラス ("ジネス社), ISBN 4-8284-1149-6. Translator: 脇坂 あゆみ.
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Norwegian:
De som beveger verden. (Kagge Forlag, 2000), ISBN 8-248-90083-5 (hardcover), ISBN 8-248-90169-6 (paperback). Translator: John Erik Bøe Lindgren.
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Polish:
Atlas Zbuntowany (Zysk i S-ka, 2004), ISBN 83-7150-969-3 (Twarda). Translator: Iwona Michałowska.
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Portuguese:
Quem é John Galt? (Editora Expressão e Cultura), ISBN 85-208-0248-6 (paperback). Translator: Paulo Henriques Britto.
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Spanish:
La Rebelion de Atlas. (Editorial Grito Sagrado), ISBN 9-872-09510-8 (hardcover), ISBN 9-872-09511-6 (paperback).
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Swedish:
Och världen skälvde. (
Timbro Förlag, 2005), ISBN 9-175-66556-5. Translator: Maud Freccero.
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Turkish:
Atlas Vazgeçti. (Plato Yayınları, 2003), ISBN 9-759-67726-1. Translator: Belkıs Çorapçı.
Reviews
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A negative review from the December 28,
1957 issue of
National Review by
Whittaker Chambers.
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A critique of the Chambers review, claiming that Chambers did not actually read the novel
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A blog with a review in the archive and past in-depth Chapter-by-Chapter, Motif-by-Motif, etc. analysis.
Satires and parodies
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"Telemachus Sneezed" within Robert Anton Wilson's
Illuminatus! Trilogy (Search for "Taffy Rhinestone" in the former link to read the spoof.)
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The Abridged Atlas Shrugged – a thousand pages distilled into about a thousand words.
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Atlas Shr, a look at
parallel universes wherein all of Ayn Rand's books are four hundred pages shorter
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Elvis Shrugged, an early '90s comic book miniseries published by Revolutionary Comics in which popular entertainers
Elvis Presley, a cyborg
Frank Sinatra,
Frank Zappa,
Madonna,
Spike Lee, and others take the place of various
Atlas Shrugged counterparts.
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Oscar Shrugged, a depiction of the first film festival held in Galt's Gulch
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Atlas Shrugged 2: One Hour Later, starring Bob the Angry Flower
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Wikibooks synopsis
Atlas Shrugged*
Excerpt from Atlas Shrugged at the
ARI*
Atlas Shrugged movie news at The Atlas Society
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Atlas Shrugged's cover illustrator Nick Gaetano at
Quent Cordair Fine Art*
The Annual Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest
